ABSTRACT
THE PHRASE “FAITH-BASED DEVELOPMENT” CONJURES A LINGUISTIC contradiction. How can economic development, a symbol of thisworldly, material improvement, of science, and of progress, be based on faith? Is economic development not a move away from the logical ambiguities of mysticism toward the scientific promise of technological advancement? Scholarly studies of economic development seem to rely on these logical assumptions. For the most part, they have excluded the topic of religion. The separation of religion and economic development reinforces modernization theories that declare a progressive differentiation between religious and economic domains of social life, reflected, for instance, in the historical separation of church and state in the West. Language that places the spiritual and the practical in two distinct realms also bears the mark of such thinking. However, the newly gained political support for faith-based charitable work in the United States complicates such a linear and historical trajectory toward a progressive religious/economic divide. The transnational reach of faith-based humanitarian aid through the work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the increasing political and economic importance of religious NGOs in Africa, further complicate the matter.
